CITY of Swan councillors passed a motion to amend the trolley fine local law on February 12 after some back and forth about the merits of approving the change.

Midland Guildford ward councillor Rashelle Predovnik moved the motion to not immediately fine retailers upon collection, extend collection windows to eight hours instead of four, trial a fee waiver step and to continue working with affected retailers to find solutions.

“An additional step is needed to ensure businesses are not unfairly financially penalised, as the issue of abandoned shopping trolleys is often beyond their control,” Cr Predovnik said.

“Our current system relies on the Snap Send Solve app to report this issue to retailers but relying on community reports via this app is ineffective according to the owners of IGA in Stratton, Ellenbrook and Midland who say they have received no feedback through this system since the new laws were implemented.

“This more collaborative and practical approach ensures we better work together with our business sector – treating them as part of the solution instead of the problem.”

The officer recommendation was to not waive the collection fee as it was there to cover collection costs and to incentivise retailers to take preventative measures and collect trolleys promptly.

The officer’s comment explained the city was unsuccessful in solving this issue through other methods and that businesses and community had been engaged during advertisement of the local law’s adoption.

It explained that having begun for only a few months, it had already cost the city more than $26,000, factoring in trolley bay, trailer and collector costs.

The revenue recorded up to December 24, 2024 was reported to be just shy of $8000, but the collector and vehicle cost the city $3000 per month.

“The city only collects trolleys one day a week, the retailers have six days a week to collect themselves without charge from the city,” they said.

“The collection fee represents the reasonable cost the city incurs in impounding trolleys, and it is reasonable that the city seeks to recoup these costs from the retailers.

“The city’s position is that we have a duty to enforce the local law.”

The officer’s recommendation said it was the city’s view retailers do have control of most abandoned trolleys but accepted a small percentage were genuinely stolen.

“The issue raised of unfairly impacting smaller businesses we certainly agree is challenging with a one size fits all approach,” they said.

“Providing some allowance to only small businesses could be a better solution.

“This could for example include not charging a collection fee for ‘small retail shop’ as defined under Section 10 of the Retail Trading Hours Act 1987, for a limited period if collected promptly from the city.”

Stratton IGA owner Ben Heptinstall said the officer’s comments relied largely on opinion when suggesting not charging a collection fee would de-incentivise retailers from trolley collection.

“This is just the officer’s opinion and there is no evidence to support this suggestion,” he said.

“We do everything that is reasonably possible already and we would not change how we operate if there was a two-week window to collect our trollies.”

Mr Heptinstall agreed with the officer’s comment that ratepayers shouldn’t bear the cost of abandoned trolleys but said the previous solution would have impacted them unfairly.

“Any fines or penalty the city imposes of the retailer, will end up being paid by the ratepayer,” he said.

“When a retailer incurs a cost, it will be reflected in the sell price of their goods.

“The only way the ratepayer won’t be impacted by this local law, is if the city fines the offender that steals the shopping trolley.”

The motion was passed nine to four.